Interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer

ABSTRACT

An interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer is described herein. A wafer having a plurality of conductive lines thereon is provided. An insulating layer is formed over the conductive lines. Two via holes are formed in the insulating layer to expose two of the conductive lines waiting to be repaired. A first conductive layer is filled into the via holes to form two pattern marks. A mask is formed over the wafer to cover the insulating layer and the two pattern marks. The mask located above and between the two pattern marks is removed to form a trench exposing the two pattern marks and a portion of the insulating layer. A second conductive layer is formed over the mask to cover the two exposed pattern marks and the exposed insulating layer. The mask and the second conductive layer above the mask are removed simultaneously.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of a prior application Ser. No. 10/906,168, filed Feb. 05, 2005, which is pending. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer and a structure thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

Integrated circuit fabrication is a high-tech industry that involves four major subsystems including integrated circuit design, wafer manufacturing, wafer testing and wafer packaging. After all the steps necessary for fabricating a complete integrated circuit have been completed, a series of tests is carried out to ensure the quality of the final products and/or to modify the circuit fabrication process according to the test results. Furthermore, at the end of a wafer fabrication cycle, the wafer frequency undergoes many types of wafer tests. If defects or out-of-spec elements are found in the circuit on the wafer, a repair operation is often carried out to form a repair circuit. This kind of operational mode not only saves the trouble of producing rework photomask and some other costs, but also significantly increases overall yield of the wafer.

In 1988, Intel's researcher Richard Leven-good uses a focused ion beam (FIB) device to ‘deposit’ a section of absent circuit on a microprocessor chip. Thereafter, the chip is tested and found to operate normally. From that time on, FIB has become one of the principal techniques for repairing defective circuits or out-of-spec circuits of a silicon wafer. However, there are a still a few drawbacks in using the FIB technique to repair wafer circuits. Because a FIB device is an expensive piece of equipment, using the FIB technique to repair circuits on the wafer separated by a long distance is rather expensive. Furthermore, it takes considerable time to repair each stretch of circuit using the FIB technique. The repairing time is even longer if the circuits to be repaired are separated by a long distance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, at least one objective of the present invention is to provide a method for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer capable of repairing circuits on the wafer and reducing the repairing cost.

At least a second objective of the present invention is to provide an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer for removing defective or out-of-spec circuits that lead to a drop in the production yield of the wafer.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides a method for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer. First, a wafer having a plurality of conductive lines thereon is provided, and an insulating layer has been formed over the conductive lines. Two via holes are formed in the insulating layer to expose two of the conductive lines. Thereafter, a first conductive layer is filled into the via holes to form two pattern marks. A mask is formed over the wafer to cover the insulating layer and the two pattern marks. The mask located above and between the two pattern marks is removed to form a trench exposing the two pattern marks and a portion of the insulating layer. A second conductive layer is formed over the mask to cover the two exposed pattern marks and the exposed insulating layer. The mask and the second conductive layer above the mask are removed simultaneously.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mask is fabricated using silicon oxide and the silicon oxide mask over the wafer is formed in a spin coating operation. Furthermore, the mask can also be fabricated using other materials including titanium dioxide, acetic acid resin or silicone.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the process of removing the mask above and between the two pattern marks to form the trench includes cutting out an area on the mask and removing the mask within the cutout area. The cutout area is formed on the mask by using focused ion beam technique or laser technology.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first conductive layer is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and a combination thereof.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the via holes are formed in the insulating layer by using focused ion beam technique or laser technology.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second conductive layer is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and a combination thereof.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second conductive layer is formed in a sputtering or an electroplating operation.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the insulating layer is a passivation layer. According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the insulating layer is fabricated using silicon nitride or silicon oxide.

The present invention also provides an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer. This structure comprises a wafer, an insulating layer, two pattern marks and a conductive layer. The wafer has a plurality of conductive lines thereon. The insulating layer is disposed on the wafer to cover the conductive lines. The insulating layer has two via holes that expose two of the conductive lines. The two pattern marks are disposed inside the via holes and in electrical contact with the two conductive lines respectively. The top surface of the two pattern marks is at a level higher than the top surface of the insulating layer. The conductive layer covers at least the top surface of the two pattern marks and the insulating layer between the two pattern marks for electrically connecting the two conductive lines.

Accordingly, the method for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer in the present invention does not use the focused ion beam technique to form the interconnection in the insulating layer directly. Therefore, the method of the present invention demands a shorter repairing cycle and a lower cost than the conventional FIB technique especially for repairing circuits separated by a long distance. Since considerable time is saved in fabricating the interconnection in the insulating layer on the wafer, throughput of the wafer is increased.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended. to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a wafer having two conductive lines thereon waiting to be repaired.

FIGS. 2A through 2F are top views showing the steps for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A through 3F are schematic cross-sectional views along line I-I′ of FIGS. 2A through 2F.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.

In the past, the circuits on a wafer are repaired using the conventional focused ion beam (FIB) technique. However, the FIB technique of wafer circuit repair requires a relatively long repairing period and a high repairing cost. In particular, the repairing time and cost using the conventional FIB technique will be exceedingly high as shown in FIG. 1 if the distance 106 separating the conductive lines 102 and 104 on the wafer 100 is long over hundreds of micrometers.

FIGS. 2A through 2F are top views showing the steps for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3A through 3F are schematic cross-sectional views along line I-I′ of FIGS. 2A through 2F. First, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 3A, a wafer 300 having a plurality of conductive lines 302 thereon is provided. Furthermore, an insulating layer 304 covers all the conductive lines 302. The insulating layer 304 is, for example, a silicon nitride layer or a silicon oxide layer formed in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. In an embodiment, the insulating layer 304 is as a passivation layer for protecting the underlying substrate 300 and the conductive lines 302 against any damage due to foreign impurities and mechanical impact.

As shown in FIGS. 2B and 3B, two via holes 306 a and 306 b are formed in the insulating layer 304 to expose two of the conductive lines 302 a and 302 b. The two via holes 306 a and 306 b are formed, for example, using a focused ion beam (FIB) or a laser beam.

As shown in FIGS. 2C and 3C, a conductive material is deposited into the via holes 306 a and 306 b to form two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b. Thereafter, a mask 310 is formed over the wafer 300 to cover the insulating layer 304 and the two pattern marks 310. The conductive layer (the pattern marks 308 a and 308 b) is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and a combination thereof. The method of forming the conductive layer includes using the focused ion beam (FIB) technique, for example. In one embodiment, the mask layer 310 is a silicon oxide layer formed in a spin coating operation, for example. In another embodiment, the mask layer 310 is a titanium dioxide, acetic acid resin or silicone layer formed by directly disposing the titanium dioxide, the acetic acid resin or the silicone material over the wafer 300 to cover the insulating layer 304 and the pattern marks 308 a and 308 b.

As shown in FIGS. 2D and 3D, the mask layer 310 above and between the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b is removed to form a trench 312 that exposes the two pattern masks 308 a and 308 b and the insulating layer 304 between the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b. The process of forming the trench 312 includes cutting out an area 314 on the mask 310 such that the area 314 encloses at least the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b and the area between the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b. Thereafter, the mask layer 310 within the area 314 is removed. In one embodiment, the method of cutting out the area 314 on the mask 310 includes using a focused ion beam or a laser beam. In another embodiment, if the mask layer 310 is fabricated using titanium dioxide, acetic acid resin or silicone, the method of cutting out the area 314 in the mask 310 includes using a cutting knife, for example.

As shown in FIGS. 2E and 3E, a conductive layer 316 is formed over the mask layer 310 to cover the exposed pattern marks 308 a and 308 b and the insulating layer 304. The conductive layer 316 is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper aluminum and a combination thereof. The conductive layer 316 is formed in a sputtering or an electroplating operation, for example.

As shown in FIGS. 2F and 3F, the mask layer 310 and the conductive layer 316 above the mask layer 310 are simultaneously removed so that the conductive lines 302 a and 302 b are electrically connected through the remaining conductive layer 316 and the pattern marks 308 a and 308 b. Hence, the interconnection in the insulating layer on the wafer is formed.

It should be noted that the aforementioned process is also used for repairing the circuits on a wafer. The conductive lines 302 a and 302 b in FIG. 2B and FIG. 3B are circuits waiting to be repaired. Thereafter, the interconnection process of the present invention is performed to form an interconnection (the marks 308 a, 308 b and the conductive layer 316) so that the circuits waiting to be repaired can be electrically connected. The interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer according to the present invention is illustrated in the following with reference to FIG. 3F. As shown in FIG. 3F, a repaired wafer structure comprises a wafer 300, an insulating layer 304, two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b and a conductive layer 316. The wafer 300 has a plurality of conductive lines 302 thereon. Furthermore, the insulating layer 304 is disposed on the wafer 300 to cover the conductive lines 302. The insulating layer 304 has two via holes 306 a and 306 b that expose two of the conductive lines 302 a and 302 b. The two pattern marks 302 a and 302 b are disposed inside the via holes 306 a and 306 b and in electrical contact with the conductive lines 302 a and 302 b respectively. The top surface of the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b is higher than the top surface of the insulating layer 304. The conductive layer 316 covers at least the surface of the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b and the insulating layer 304 between the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b so that the two conductive lines 302 a and 302 b are electrically connected.

In the present invention, two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b are formed over the two conductive lines 302 a and 302 b and made electrical contact with the two conductive lines 302 a and 302 b. Thereafter, the conductive layer 316 is formed over the two pattern marks 308 a and 308 b so that the two conductive lines 302 a and 302 b are electrically connected through the conductive layer 316, thereby repairing the two of the circuits. If the two conductive lines 302 a, 302 b are circuits waiting to be repaired, the method of the present invention is also applied to repair circuits so that the circuits waiting to be repaired can be electrically connected.

In summary, the method for fabricating an interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer according to the present invention does not used a focused ion beam to form an interconnection in an insulating layer. Since the FIB technique of forming an interconnection or wafer circuit repair requires a relatively long repairing period and a high repairing cost especially when the distance separating the conductive lines to be repaired is more than hundreds of micrometers long, the present invention can save considerable production time and cost.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents. 

1. An interconnection in an insulating layer on a wafer, comprising: a wafer having a plurality of conductive lines thereon; an insulating layer disposed over the wafer to cover the conductive lines, wherein the insulating layer has two via holes that expose two of the conductive lines; two pattern marks disposed inside the via holes and electrically connected to the two conductive lines, wherein the top surface of the two pattern marks are higher than the top surface of the insulating layer; and a conductive layer covering at least the pattern marks and the insulating layer between the pattern marks so that the two conductive lines are electrically connected.
 2. The interconnection of claim 1, wherein the material constituting the pattern marks is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and a combination thereof.
 3. The interconnection of claim 1, wherein the material constituting the conductive layer is selected from a group consisting of tungsten, platinum, gold, copper, aluminum and a combination thereof.
 4. The interconnection of claim 1, wherein the insulating layer is a passivation layer.
 5. The interconnection of claim 1, wherein the material constituting the insulating layer comprises silicon nitride or silicon oxide. 